Everyone else got serious as well. William nodded to Alex. He had to tell them. Maybe Alex, who knew Serafina as an enemy the best, could explain why the girl's treatment had deviated from Alex's description so radically. He wanted an answer for that. Even more than that, he needed an answer for that.

"Come here, to the lab, so you'll have more space," Jeremy called out down to the scanners. "And I'll hear you better."

"Yeah, of course," William said. He already gathered his memories together and processed them. How would he explain the incidents of his captivity the best?

He was not fully ready when the elevator opened at the lab and the group stepped out into the dimmer room. The memory of how he had been rejected on the final mission against X.A.N.A. returned to William's mind as he looked at the group that now seemed more neutral and even more worried. Now he was not guilty for anything, so he had no reason to get up on the defensive, yet he still felt himself subconsciously preparing for a rejection. The memory of that day was still too fresh and the wounds had barely had the time to merely close up. The healing would only begin now.

Perhaps a new enemy against whom to fight was what he actually needed to heal his wounds. This new fight was his new chance to take the place he had lost previously and properly befriend the other Lyoko Warriors.

"We only know that Serafina tied you to Lyoko and her base and extorted us. Then the connection was cut off. What happened after that?" Jeremy explained. "How did you survive Serafina in such a good state?"

William gathered his thoughts together and started, "Serafina didn't hurt me even once." He observed the astonished expressions.

"What did you just say?" Alex asked, sounding shocked.

"Serafina didn't hurt me even once," William repeated, now slightly more certain about himself. "Not even once even though she did have opportunities."

"But why?" Ulrich wondered.

"I don't know," William answered.

"Did she touch you at any point?" Alex asked, now seeming worried.

"Yeah," William answered. He remembered the stroking on his upper arm vividly. "But she was surprisingly... gentle." After having found the suitable adjective he was no longer sure how he would be reacted to. The rest of the group exchanged surprised glances, eyebrows rising in astonishment. This description did not match with the one given by Alex at all!

"Are you entirely sure she did not hurt you?" Yumi asked, sincerely worried. William noticed it and felt his hope alight; perhaps he had chances for a proper friendship with Yumi after all.

"Why would I lie? I'm here now, safe with you. I don't need to fear that Serafina would appear from somewhere and twist my arms broken or something just because I told truthfully what happened," William answered calmly. He was slightly offended by the question but Yumi's genuine worry countervailed it. She did not deserve an angry answer.

"Were you conscious all the time?" Jeremy asked.

"Conscious?" William repeated. It was a tough question. "Yeah, if we don't count that I fell asleep sometime during the night hours. I just couldn't stay awake no matter how hard I tried."

"Did you feel anything during your sleep or had anything changed after you fell asleep?" Alex asked.

"Well, I remember being on a rocky ground before I fell asleep but I woke up with my head on a pillow and a blanket around me," William told. "I would've woken up earlier for sure if I'd been hurt. But even when I woke up, I still didn't feel any pain at all."

"Weird... That doesn't sound like the Serafina we heard about," Odd remarked, looking at Alex whose eyebrows were furrowed during the brainwork.

"Where did Serafina touch you?" Alex asked, worried.

"To my shoulders and to my right upper arm at least when I was awake," William answered.

"How did Serafina treat you overall? How did she react to you?" Alex asked. "I know that this is terribly interrogation-like, but we have to know what happened."

"It's alright, I do understand, "William replied. He pondered for a moment how to answer the questions. "Like I said, Serafina was gentle. She... she kept repeating that she wouldn't harm me. And undeniably she was friendly towards me." The further William explained, the more strongly he understood how wrong it felt to not just him but also the others.

"Did you discuss?" Alex asked.

"Yes," William answered.

At the very instant he felt a jab of his conscience. He had told Serafina quite a lot. He had gotten carried away by the friendliness and interest and he had not been careful with what he had told.

"What did you talk about?" Aelita asked.

"We talked about a little bit of this and that," William answered, shrugging. "We talked randomly about our lives."

"Did Serafina tell you about her own life?" Odd asked.

"Actually, quite a lot," William told. "Although a lot of it conflicted with Alex's story. Lyra was supposedly her sister and not Alex's."

"Well of course," Alex scoffed. "Now I think I understand what she's trying to do."

"Please do enlighten us," Ulrich said.

"Serafina's trying psychology instead of her usual brutality," Alex explained. "She's giving a completely different image of herself than me in order to cause confusion so that you'd wonder if I'm the good guy who tells the truth after all. Maybe she also tried to cause William to have Stockholm syndrome. That's a nasty thing."

William looked at the floor. Admittedly, it had worked on him; he was confused and did not know what to think.

"William? What now?" Aelita asked, worried. She had immediately noticed the change in her black-haired comrade's mood.

"I just don't know what to think. Serafina was so kind to me, so interested in what I had to say..." William explained and shrugged his shoulder again, uncertain. "I don't know what's right in this and who's telling the truth and who isn't. And who's on the right side..."

Alex saw the desperation in William's eyes right away and understood its origin. He was not completely privy on the events of the Lyoko Warriors' fight, but William's case he knew. He looked at the other Lyoko Warriors who looked at each other, frowning. No one knew how to react to William's words.

Luckily, Alex knew.

"I understand very well that you're confused. You've been in this hassle for just a very short time and you aren't completely let in on the things yet," he said understandingly. William raised his eyes to look at him, seeing the other boy coming towards him. Alex put his hand on his comrade's shoulder. "Believe me, I understand you." Then he turned to look at the others. "If Serafina plans to attack our psyches instead of our bodies, one thing is for sure. This group must not have weak links."

Alex felt William's shoulder tense at those words.

"Our weakest link is only as weak as the other links make it. We must pull together, get along with one another and be friends or we can never defeat Serafina and Alicia. We cannot afford discord or pushing anyone aside. On the final moments of X.A.N.A. you seemed to not only have the face but also, to your fortune, could afford pushing William aside no matter how much he tried to help you. Now you absolutely can't afford that. Hopefully you don't have the face either," Alex let his accusatory gaze eat into the others' consciences. He felt William's shoulder relax now that the former Xana Warrior realized that he was defending his comrade.

"You've already taken the right direction, but it hasn't healed the wounds yet, has it, William?" Alex looked into William's eyes now.

"No, it hasn't," William answered. The wounds had not healed indeed, and this situation proved it. He had felt his place in the group threatened and it still was not over.

"I thought so," Alex said compassionately. He felt sorry for this boy in whose eyes he saw the concealed fear of being rejected hiding deep inside. He looked at the others again. "We must be a solid group, we all. Otherwise we have no hope of victory."

"You're right. We shouldn't have pushed William away from us in the first place," Jeremy remarked. From the very beginning, he had been in favor of taking William with them when he had approached them after Xanafication. It did take courage to return after being possessed by the AI for multiple months even though he did not remember anything of it. William did, however, remember the Scyphozoa and its tentacles and knew that after being freed he had come to a time and place changed during the months.

"Absolutely," Aelita seconded. Odd and Ulrich, the latter remembering the events of X.A.N.A.'s day of death very well, nodded in support. Yumi had to comply as well even though she did not really want William into the group after the boy had gotten possessed by X.A.N.A. out of his own stupidity. To everyone's chagrin, she had been right about taking him with them being a bad idea.

However, she, too, knew that Alex was right. William had come to stay, and he could not be excluded from them anymore, not by any means now that X.A.N.A. had left its mark on the boy. If they pushed William away now, it was guaranteed that Serafina would take advantage of it. They had to cooperate. No one wanted to face William as an enemy ever again at any cost.

Perhaps William had learned from it. They would see about that.

Alex turned to look at William again, his expression turning friendly quickly. "Do you have anything else to tell us?"

"No," William answered, calmed. He felt more confident now that he was not alone against everyone but he had someone next to him as support.

"Then I think we can all return to the school. The lessons are waiting," Alex said, smiling.

They left the factory without discussing anything special. They had to return to the lessons. On the bridge, as William and Alex waited that the others would get to the sewers, William said, "Thank you for defending me."

"No problem," Alex said, smiling widely. "It's a pleasure to help. And anyway, we must stick together. If you ever have any worries, you can share them with me. I'll listen to you."

The smile came on William's lips almost naturally; Alex's joy was contagious.

"Thanks. And if you ever have any worries, do share them with me," William said reciprocally.

"Okay", Alex said, smiling even more widely.

"Hey, come on already!" Jeremy called out from the sewer.

"We're coming!" William answered and went to the ladders first. Alex followed him.

Perhaps it was just the sunlight, but for some reason William felt livelier and more lighthearted than in the dimmer lab. However, he believed catching Alex's positivity to be a contributory cause.

He had a place among the Lyoko Warriors after all.

/Code Lyoko (c) Moonscoop, Foes & Friends Remastered duology and its OCs (c) Me/